Automatic checking device for gravity-closing elevator-doors.



B. S. DHUY.

AUTOMATIC CHECKING DEVICE FOR GRAVITY CLOSI NG ELEVATOR DOORS. APPLICATION FILED sens. 1915.

1,198,624. Patented Sept. 1?), 1916. 9 59- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN SKELTON DHUY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., .A-SSIGNOR TO THE PEELLE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 19, 1916.

Application filed September 9, 1915. Serial No. 49,797.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN S. DHUY, a. citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York city, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Checking Devices for Gravity-Closing Elevator- Doors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in automatic checking devices for gravity closing elevator doors.

The object of my invention is to combine with a pair of vertically moving elevator shaft doors, a weight so mounted as to check the momentum of the upward movement of the lower door and thereby check the momentum of the downward movement of the upper door during the closing of the doors, just before the edges of the two doors come in contact in closing the opening, so as to avoid undue concussion, slamming and consequent noises produced thereby and thus also reducing undue tear and wear of the parts, all of which is simple in construction, strong and durable and can be applied on old as well as on new doors.

In the accompanying drawings in which like letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures :Figure 1 is an elevation of two vertically moving doors for closing an opening in an elevator shaft, the doors being partly open and viewed from the shaft side, parts being broken away. Fig. 2 is a detail elevation of the weight and the means for mounting the same, parts being broken away. Fig. 3 is a similar view taken in a plane at right angles to that of Fig. 2.

Fire proof doors for closing the door openings of elevator shafts generally consist of an upper door section and a lower door section, which move vertically and the two doors or sections are connected with each other by suitable rods and chains passing over a pulley so that when the upper door, for example, is moved upward, the lower door is moved downward and vice versa and when those doors are of considerable size and consequently ofconsiderable weight, the upper door is overweighted, that is, made heavier than the lower door so that when the doors are released after having been opened, the upper door descends and on account of its greater weight, pulls the lower door upward. After the doors have been opened, the lower door is engaged by a suitable catch so as to hold it in lowered position, thereby holding the upper door in raised position and this catch is tripped automatically by the elevator car in moving upward or downward, so that thereby the lower door is released, whereupon the upper heavier door again descends and raises the lower door, that is, the opening is closed automatically as soon as the elevator car is started up or down in the shaft. As these doors are of considerable weight they come together with very much force producing considerable concussion and noise and unduly wearing the parts. The means for locking the lower door in lowered position and for automatically tripping the same are old and well known and need not be described in detail as they form no part of the present invention. As shown in the accompanying drawings, the upper door 1 and the lower door 2 are guided to move vertically in the elevator shaft by clips 3 on the side edges of the door, which clips loosely embrace vertical guides 4 in the elevator shaft, which guides usually consist of angle bars. Across barb is secured on the lower door at the upper edge thereof and extends beyond the guides 4 and to each end of this bar is attached one end of a chain 7 which passes over a pulley 8, the other end of said chain being attached to a side edge of the upper door near the bottom edge of the same as at 9. The greater weight of the upper door can now act on the lower door to lift the same. For the purpose of holding the lower door in lowered and open position, an automatic catch 10 is provided in the elevator shaft, which catch is of conventional construction and can be operated by a cam on the elevator car (not shown) and this catch 10 engages the end parts of the bar 6 on the top of the lower door. This automatic catch is normally out of the path of the ends of the bars 6 but when the elevator car floor is flush with the floor of the building, at which the door in question is located, the cam on the elevator door, holds this catch in the path of the ends of the bar 6 so that these ends can be engaged by said catch. The matter so far described is all old and well known and only mentioned for the purpose of facilitating an understanding of my invention.

A U-shaped clip 11 is attached to the side of the shaft or to the guides at and through the horizontally projecting arms of said frame 11 a vertical rod 12 passes loosely, which is provided with a suitable plate or head 13 at its lower end. A collar or lateral projection 14 is formed on said rod above the upper arm of the Ushaped bracket 11 and on this collar a washer 15 rests on which washer the lower end of a helical spring 16 rests which loosely surrounds said rod above the collar 14. On the upper end of said spring a weight 17 rests which is of about fifteen pounds, more or less, depending upon the weight of the upper door and this weight is free to slide up and down on the rod 12 and the rod can slide through the same. A helical spring 18 loosely surrounding the rod 12, rests upon the upper end of the weight 17 and its upper end bears against a washer 19 beneath a transverse pin or other retaining device .20 on said rod near the upper end of the same. The lower end of the rod 12 projects beneath the bracket 11 a greater or less distance, depending upon the weight of the door sections and the place at which their momentum is to be checked and the head on the lower end of this rod is in the path of a projecting end of the upper cross bar 6 of the lower door. The weight of the rod is supported from the weight 17 by means of the upper spring 18 and the weight is supported on the upper arm of the bracket 11 by means of the lower spring 16 and collar 14. When the open doors are automatically released by the elevator car in the manner above described, the heavier upper door 1 moves downward under the action of its weight and lifts the lower door. Before the lower and upper edges of the upper and lower door respectively can come in contact, a projecting end of the bar 6 on the upper edge of the lower door, strikes against the head 13 on the lower end of the rod 12 thereby forcing the same upward and as the rod moves upward, the weight 5 is also moved upward as this weight rests upon the lower spring 16 and the latter is sup ported by the collar 14 on the rod. The weight of the rod 12 and the weight 17 are thus substantially added to the weight of the lower door and this additional weight checks the momentum of the approaching doors to such an extent that instead of the adjacent edges coming in contact with a great concussion or slamming, they come together without practically any noise. The spring 16 is compressed more or less by the raising of the weight and thus cushions the blow delivered by the projecting ends of the bar 6 on the rod 12. To prevent too sudden an upward movement of the weight, the upper spring 19 is provided which cushions the weight during its upward movement and prevents undue jars and jolts and consequent noises. It will be observed that the bracket 11 is so fixed in the elevator shaft that the ends of the bar 6 can strike the lower end of the rod 12 a greater or less time before the edges of the doors can come in contact and the weight, the power of the springs and the length of the rod 12 are so proportioned that the momentum of the doors, which they obtain in moving toward each other, is checked before their adjacent edges can come in contact with sufficient force toproduce disturbing noises. Likewise when the doors are to be opened this is facilitated by the action of the weight on the lower door for the reason that this weight acts on the lower door until the same has been moved downward a certain distance and the greater the weight on the lower door in the beginning of its downward movement, so much easier will it be to lift the heavier upper door.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a door check, the combination with a rod guided to move vertically and in the path of part of a vertically movable door,

of a weight mounted loosely on said rod to be moved vertically, and means for transmitting motion from the rod to the weight, substantially as set forth.

2. In a door check, the combination with a fixed bracket, of a rod guided to move in said bracket, parallel with the movement of the door and in the path of part of the door, a collar fixed on said rod, above the bracket, a spring surrounding the rod, above said collar, and a weight mounted on said rod and resting loosely on the collar, substantially as set forth.

3. In a door check, the combination with a bracket, of a rod guided to move in the same, parallel with the movement of the door and in the path of part of said door, a collar on said rod and located above the bracket, a spring surrounding said rod BENJAMIN SKELTON DHUY.

Witnesses:

HENRY E. PEELLE, OLIVER R. GRANT.

(Jopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. 0. 

